AntiSec hackers post stolen police data as revenge for arrests

AntiSec released data on U.S. law enforcement officers in retaliation for arrests related to hacking attacks.

LAS VEGAS--In retaliation for arrests, the AntiSec hackers say they've released their "largest cache yet" of data stolen from law enforcement agencies in the U.S., including personal information, private e-mails, passwords, training files, data from informants, Social Security Numbers, and stolen credit card information from an online sheriff's store.

The news of the latest attacks comes on the second day of the DefCon hacker conference here, where attendees have been playing a digital hacker version of "Where's Waldo" to try to spot one of the more notorious hackers associated with the group, who goes by the handle "Sabu." Using the Twitter profile @AnonymouSabu, the hacker has been taunting others who are trying to unmask him and teasing about showing up at the conference.

The data dump, dubbed "Shooting Sheriffs Saturday Release," was done to "embarrass, discredit and incriminate police officers across the U.S.," the group said in a statement on Pastebin that estimated that there was more than 10GB of data. A sampling of the domains listed as defaced or otherwise attacked were inaccessible this morning.

A Twitter profile belonging to the hackers also said that the Web site of Italy's largest police association had been attacked. The hackers said the U.S. attack was done in response to the arrest 10 days ago of one of their associates, whose hacker handle is "Topiary."

"We are doing this in solidarity with Topiary and the Anonymous PayPal LOIC defendants as well as all other political prisoners who are facing the gun of the crooked court system...," the hackers said in the statement. "You may bust a few of us, but we greatly outnumber you, and you can never stop us from continuing to destroy your systems and leak your data."

Government and law enforcement agencies have been prime targets for the hackers. "We hope that not only will dropping this info demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement using their own words, as well as result in possibly humiliation, firings, and possible charges against several officers, but that it will also disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorize communities," the statement said.

"We have no sympathy for any of the officers or informants who may be endangered by the release of their personal information," the hackers said. "For too long they have been using and abusing our personal information, spying on us, arresting us, beating us, and thinking that they can get away with oppressing us in secrecy."

The initial compromise was done about two weeks ago on Mountain Home, Arkansas-based Brooks-Jeffrey Marketing, which hosts sheriff association sites. Someone who answered the phone for Brooks-Jeffrey this morning said he would ask a representative for comment.

The hackers say they were easily able to get back into the compromised servers after they were taken offline and then put back online by the law enforcement agencies.

"It took less than 24 hours to root BJM's server and copy all their data to our private servers. Soon after, their servers were taken down and a news article came out suggesting they received advance FBI 'credible threat' notice of a 'hacking plot,'" the statement says.

"We were surprised and delighted to see that not only did they relaunch a few sites less than a week later, but that their 'bigger, faster server that offers more security' carried over our backdoors from their original box. This time we were not going to hesitate to pull the trigger: in less than an hour we rooted their new server and defaced all 70+ domains while their root user was still logged in and active."

The hackers used the stolen credit card details to make donations to the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Bradley Manning Support Network, according to the statement. The hackers are strong supporters of whistle-blower site WikiLeaks and Manning, the Army soldier arrested last year for leaking classified data to the site.

Some of the data stolen during the attack, involving Missouri sheriffs, was released a few days ago.

The hackers have been on a rampage for months (see list of recent attacks), and arrests of suspected members of their operations haven't stopped their activities. Ten days ago Scotland Yard arrested a 19-year-old who it identified as Topiary, a key member of the LulzSec hacking group. That arrest came on the heels of arrests of 16 people in the U.S., four in the Netherlands, and a 16-year-old in London as part of a global investigation into denial-of-service attacks on PayPal late last year in support of WikiLeaks, and other attacks.

Read More

Report: Howard Stern linked to pirated 'Super 8'

Perhaps you failed to see the J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg movie "Super 8." It is 82 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so it must be good.

This might explain why there is some enthusiasm for pirated versions of it online.

Interestingly, Torrent Freak reports that there exists one especially high-quality version that has reportedly appeared in several very fine P2P groups. However, each iteration seems to have come from the same DVD screener.

Here is today's vast controversy: the film is reportedly watermarked "H Stern."

 

This highly incriminating watermark runs through the whole of the movie, apparently.

There is, of course, no specific reason to believe that this "H Stern" is that H. Stern, the one who likes to talk about sex with topless ladies.

Still, Twitter being a lightning rod for lightning humor, there already exists a hashtag titled #nomorescreenersforhowie.

Though Stern himself has become a rather passive presence on Twitter, his personal stylist, Ralph Cirella, has replied to suggestions that the show might be involved.

He tweeted: "HA, NO but ive been hearing about it #nomorescreenersforhowie RT @GusIsGrumpy you leak Howard's copy of Super 8? It's all over the internet!"

So a mystery is born. Where did this screener come from? Is some miscreant attempting to implicate the saintly Stern? Will Paramount Pictures issue a volume of lawsuits? Will Spielberg call Stern personally and shout?

The world was such a peaceful place before technology came along.

Read More

Apple sued over speedy Mac OS X startup

Mac OS X is being cited in a new suit against Apple.

Apple has been sued for the Mac OS X startup process.

Operating Systems Solutions, a Florida company, recently sued Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleging that the Mac maker's desktop operating system violates a patent it owns for quickly booting an OS. The patent was originally issued to LG Electronics in 2002.

The patent reads, "a method for fast booting a computer system, comprising the steps of: A. performing a power on self test (POST) of basic input output system (BIOS) when the system is powered on or reset is requested; B. checking whether a boot configuration information including a system booting state which was created while executing a previous normal booting process exists or not; C. storing the boot configuration information from execution of the POST operation before loading a graphic interface (GUI) program, based on the checking result; and D. loading the graphic user interface (GUI) program."

Patently Apple was first to report on the suit.

Operating Systems Solutions doesn't cite a specific version of Apple's Mac OS X in its suit. However, the company does claim that "Apple sells or offers to sell within this district, computer systems, including but not limited to the MacBook Pro, that utilize the Mac OS X operating system that infringes" its patent.

It's currently unclear what Operating Systems Solutions actually does. Several Google searches by CNET yielded no results for the company. The firm also doesn't appear to have contact information. However, CNET did contact the company's attorney, who has not immediately responded to a request for comment or for information on the firm.

One of the more surprising elements of the suit is the patent's history, given that it was originally issued to consumer electronics giant LG in 2002. However, as Operating Systems Solutions points out in its lawsuit, the patent was reissued in 2008, and the company now owns "all right, title, and interest" in the patent.

It doesn't appear that LG is included in the lawsuit. The company did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

According to the court filing, Operating Systems Solutions wants injunctive relief. The company is also seeking damages and the immediate "destruction [of] all remaining advertisements, circulars, brochures, or other promotional or advertising items, Web site, or other materials for the infringing method."

Like many other large companies, Apple has been a lightning rod for lawsuits over the last several years. The company is currently entangled in suits related to everything from its mobile devices to the name of its cloud-based service, iCloud.

Apple has not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment on the lawsuit.

Read More

250GB Android tablet coming--interested?

Here's something you can't get with an iPad: 250GB of internal storage. Archos' upcoming Android "Honeycomb" 3.2 tablet will pack a 250GB hard disk drive that's been tweaked to perform more like a flash drive.

Archos G9 combines a 250GB hard disk drive with a 4GB flash drive.

(Credit: Archos)

The Archos G9 will sport a 250GB Seagate Momentus Thin 2.5-inch hard drive--a mere 7 millimeters thick. Though not as compact as a 1.8-inch HDD (like Apple once used in its MacBook Air and iPod), it's not as expensive either.

And Archos has tweaked the Seagate drive a bit to allow it to perform more like the flash drives found in practically all tablets today. 4GB of flash storage sits on top of the HDD, according to Craig TerBlanche, director of marketing for Archos in North America. Often-used data is stored in the flash component, allowing faster access than a standard 2.5-inch HDD, TerBlanche said.

All of this results in bigger bang for the buck. "You get 250GB for the same cost as a 32GB flash drive," he said.

Another marquee feature is the 1.5GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 dual-core processor. This is the same processor that Google has approved for upcoming Android Ice Cream Sandwich devices. That means consumers can expect to see a new wave of tablets and smartphones built around the TI 4460. But Archos will likely be one of the first, as those devices aren't expected until late in the year.

The 8-inch 250GB Archos G9 will be $369.99 and the 10-inch 250GB model, $469.99. Both are due in September.

Read More

Samsung blindsided by Apple's EU tablet injunction

Following this morning's news about Apple winning a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe, Samsung has responded by saying that not only did the company never hear about the filing in the first place, but that it also never had the chance to present its side.

In a statement released to CNET this afternoon, and which has since been added to our original story on the injunction, a Samsung spokeswoman described the court's decision as "disappointing":

Samsung is disappointed with the court's decision and we intend to act immediately to defend our intellectual property rights through the ongoing legal proceedings in Germany and will continue to actively defend these rights throughout the world.

The request for injunction was filed with no notice to Samsung, and the order was issued without any hearing or presentation of evidence from Samsung.

We will take all necessary measures to ensure Samsung's innovative mobile communications devices are available to customers in Europe and around the world.

This decision by the court in Germany in no way influences other legal proceedings filed with the courts in Europe and elsewhere.

That's a stark contrast to the statement issued by Samsung in Australia just last week, wherein it noted that it had reached an amicable agreement with Apple and the Federal Court of Australia not to sell its existing Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, and instead make a special version for the Australian market.

The back and forth between the two technology companies kicked off in April with an Apple lawsuit filed against Samsung in the U.S. alleging that the consumer electronics giant had violated its intellectual property in the design of its mobile devices. Like the EU injunction, that suit takes aim specifically at the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets, as well as other Samsung smartphones, for "copying" Apple's user interface and design features. Samsung returned the favor a week later, countersuing Apple, alleging that the iPhone and iPad maker was infringing on several of its patents.

Since then, the two have traded colorful legal briefs, as well as complaints against one another with the U.S. International Trade Commission, attempting similar bans of each other's allegedly infringing products in the U.S.

Apple has kept mum on the result of today's injunction, though company spokeswoman Kristin Huguet reissued a statement Apple delivered with its original suit against Samsung in April to Bloomberg this afternoon.

"It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging," Huguet said. "This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."

The legal ramp up comes at a time when both companies are vying for the top spot across multiple product fronts. Recent reports like one from Strategy Analytics last week noted that Apple and Samsung had leapfrogged Nokia to nab the top segments of smartphone market share. Meanwhile, Samsung's Galaxy line of tablets is the company's effort to reach similar highs against products like Apple's iPad in the tablet market.

Read More

BrightSource adds salt for solar power at night

BrightSource solar thermal power plants can be equipped with a two-tank molten salt storage system, as shown on the right side of this image.

(Credit: BrightSource Energy)

BrightSource Energy today announced molten salt energy storage for its heat-driven solar power plants, touting the advantages over flat solar photovoltaic panels.
With the storage, BrightSource solar power plants can deliver electricity to the grid consistently and into the evening hours. That makes the solar power more valuable because utilities pay more for power during peak hours, which continues past nightfall.
BrightSource's solar tower technology generates steam from a field of mirrors called heliostats shining onto a tower. The steam is fed into a conventional turbine to generate electricity. After turning the turbine, the steam is condensed into water and fed back to the tower to be heated again.
In a plant with solar storage, the steam from the tower is fed into a heat exchanger that raises the temperature of so-called "solar salts" stored in large tanks. When electricity is needed, that hot salt is converted into steam and run through the turbine.
It would be possible to build a plant with round-the-clock power delivery but BrightSource thinks that two to six hours of storage will have the broadest appeal. Utilities' requests for storage prompted the company to develop the system, according to company representative Keely Wachs
Adding storage to renewable energy at a reasonable cost is one of the toughest technical challenges for wide adoption of solar and wind. Molten salt is already being used in solar plants in Spain and one project in Nevada is in the planning stages.
Coupling solar photovoltaic panels, which generate electricity from sunlight, with batteries for storage is more expensive than using molten salt, according to BrightSource Energy. The high-temperature, high-pressure steam its towers generate work better than competing trough-based solar thermal technology as well, it said.
The salt storage system actually lowers the cost of solar plant operation because it raises the plant's capacity factor, or the amount of time over the course of a year it's delivering electricity to the grid, Wachs said. "By adding 6 hours of storage, the capacity factor increases to 50 percent and produces for approximately 4,300 hours, or twice as much as a PV farm," he said.

Read More